


All Over Again

by DustToDust



Category: Final Fantasy VIII, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-11
Updated: 2013-05-10
Packaged: 2017-12-11 12:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/798526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustToDust/pseuds/DustToDust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quistis thinks she's going to like living in Twilight Town.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Mom says they've moved to Twilight Town to be closer to the beach and all the tourist business it attracts. She jokes about how they might actually sell some things just because they're pretty instead of useful while carefully unwrapping the dishes. She doesn't look Quistis in the eye even once while saying it.

It's the first lie Quistis has ever seen her tell.

Quistis knows the _real_ reason they've moved, and it has nothing to do with the beach or customers. It's because no one knows them in Twilight Town.

Here, they're Amaline and Quistis Trepe who've just moved in, and that's all that's known about them. No one knows to stare at them and whisper once they're out of earshot. No one knows not to ask about Quistis' dad, or not to flirt with her pretty mom who has no wedding band on her finger. No one here knows _anything_ at all about them.

There are no old ladies with their gossip shaking their heads and tsking sadly. No children to make fun of Quistis for things they heard their parents say.

Most importantly though, there is no Mr. and Mrs. Guire with their three pretty children and the expectation that _nothing_ would ever break their happy family up. Nothing. Not even the promises Mr. Guire had told her mom, and definitely not the promises he'd told Quistis.

It's a new town, a new start for them. Only two days in their home, and Quistis can already see how much of a difference it's made in Mom. She smiles more --her real smile, not the fake one she used all the time before-- and seems happier than Quistis can ever recall seeing her. So when Mom lies about the beach, Quistis puts the bowls in the cupboard and asks if she can buy a new swimsuit.


	2. Chapter 2

At night Quistis helped her mother polish the rings and bangles until they were free of finger prints and dust. Once that was done she'd be allowed to pick one to wear to school the next day. A shiny platinum ring that made her steps quicker. Or a silky ribbon in her hair that had once saved her from the nasty stinging effects of a jelly fish. Or even any of the dozen necklaces, each with a different colored gem that sends different thrills of elements through her veins.

Her mother trusted her a lot and Quistis strove to prove she'd earned it. She took good care of the accessory and made sure she knew everything about it before leaving. Just in case anyone asked about it and maybe wondered where she got it.

A few did ask --and mother had once called Quistis her living advertisement board-- but mostly it was only Olette.

Olette was the only one who noticed each new accessory and asked about them. That was why she had a thin silver bracelet that occasionally glowed just a little bit.

It's not much, Quistis is still learning how to shape metal into chains strong enough to hold magic, but Olette had loved it anyway.

"It's so much work keeping up with Hayner!" Olette had once said, her smile bright and sweet. "Any little bit of luck helps."

Quistis knows she'll never be quite the craftsman her mother is. The metals and alloys just don't speak to her as loudly as the furs and shells of animals they use for trinkets. The spells though, that is where she truly excels. She's better than her mother in that now, and most of the shop hums with the power of her magic. The metal her mother crafts readily soaking up her spells before being sealed tight.

So it is spells she gives to Olette every day.

"Once more, for luck," Quistis says as she spins the complex spell out in her mind and into the small bracelet. It never fails to make Olette laugh, and the sound gets pulled into the spell. And maybe some of Quistis' own emotions get pulled along too because a shudder runs up both girls' arms. They both giggle a little helplessly at the sensation.

Afterwards, Olette inspects Quistis' left ear and smiles, "Only one earring? It looks pretty cool, what does it do?"

Quistis touches the polished black talon dangling from a delicate platinum chain and says, "It keeps someone from being noticed unless they want to to be seen."

This isn't the first day Quistis wears this particular accessory, but as Olette admires it she knows it will be the last.


End file.
